Sub-underground music from the last five or so decades

I’ve been acquainted with and a moderate fan of the records from Tim Presley’s WHITE FENCE, who records and resides in Los Angeles, but it’s only this past few weeks that I’ve crossed over from White Fence “enthusiast” to “fan”. What did the trick for me was multiple listenings to his/their first record from 2010, the eponymous “White Fence” on Make-A-Mess Records. If you haven’t heard this one yet and have spent more time w/ the Ty Segall collaboration and/or “Is Growing Faith” – or the even newer ones – I implore you to get going on this one posthaste.

“White Fence” is a trippy, warbly amalgam of Syd Barrett, Bill Direen & The Bilders and variety of 1960s thematic compilations, all set to crackle and fade and weird tape loops that sputter & cough many songs to premature ends. If you’re familiar with these comps, imagine a combination of deep 60s influences from “Highs In The Mid-Sixties”, “Chocolate Soup for Diabetics” and “Soft Sounds for Gentle People”. This modern flower child isn’t all throwback, though – it gets rough and raucous at times, most notably on a killer track called “Baxter’s Corner” that is full-on barking noise/panic rock fully of this era.

Turns out Presley’s so talented he’s even toured as a member of The Fall. I’d just retire right there, but this guy’s amazingly multi-talented and a far cut above most modern indie pretenders. Totally ready to call White Fence one of my favorite “bands”, a couple of years after everyone else started to.